Parasailing
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Parasailing, also known as parascending, is a recreational activity where a person is towed behind a vehicle (usually a boat) while attached to a specially designed parachute, known as a parasail. The boat then drives off, carrying the parascender into the air. If the boat is powerful enough, two or three people can parasail behind it at the same time. The parascender has little or no control over the parachute.
There are six parts of a parasail. The harness attaches the pilot to the parasail, which is connected to the boat, or other speeding vehicle, by the tow rope. The activity is primarily an amusement ride, not to be confused with the sport of paragliding. There are parasailing locations all over the world.
Land based parasailing has also been formed into competition sport in Northern Europe and especially in Finland. In land based parasailing, the parasail is towed behind a car or a snowmobile. In accuracy competitions the tow-vehicle controls the speed and height, and the parascender controls the lateral movement of the parasail. The competitions consist of two parts: dropping or throwing a streamer to a target, and accuracy landing. The sport was developed at the end of the 1990s in growing rapidly. The first international competitions were held in 2004.
[edit] History
The first Parasails were developed by Pierre-Marcel Lemoigne in 1961. Lemoigne is a well known developer of ParaCommander-type of parachutes known as "ParaCommander" or PC-canopies. The date of the first towing of a parasail is not known, but one of the first mentions is a flight by Colonel Michel Tournier from France flying behind a tractor in the same year - 1961. In 1963 Jacques-André Istel from Pioneer Parachute Company bought a licence from Lemoigne to manufacture and sell the invention with a name "parasail".
Brian Gaskin, the founder of Waterbird, created some of the first parasails after experimenting with ex-military parachutes in the late 60's. In 1974 he created the first true parasail which he named "Waterbird". Nearly all commercial parasails in operation today were derived from Gaskin's original "Waterbird" design. In 1975 Gaskin founded his company "Waterbird Parakites" which is still in operation today, producing commercial and recreational parasails in the UK.
At the same time Gaskin was creating the "Waterbird", Mark McCulloh of Miami, Florida was designing the first parasail winchboat. The winchboat was patented in 1976 and made its commercial debut in the 1980s. Today nearly all commercial operators use winchboats equipped with a PTO (power-take-off), which uses the boat's engine to drive a hydraulic winch. The combination of these two designs ushered in the era of widespread commercial parasailing.
[edit] Modern commercial parasailing
Today's parasail operators have evolved into highly organized and professional operations. Many of the largest operators are located in the Southeast US and Caribbean. The formation of PAPO (the Professional Association of Parasail Operators, founded by Arrit McPherson in 2003) and advancements in safety technology have increased safety throughout the sport and helped the industry's image in recent years.
Operators have moved from small (20-foot range) parachutes to large (30-40 feet) parachutes which utilize high-lift, low-drag designs enabling operators to fly higher payloads in lower (typically safer) winds. Most operators now offer double and triple flights using a tandem bar. The tandem bar is an aluminum bar attached to the yoke of the chute, allowing two or three passenger harnesses to be attached side-by-side. A tandem bar can be seen in the photo showing the Chris Abbott designed chute.
Typical parasail flights are performed with 500-1000 feet of line, although some operators use as much as 2,000 feet (610 m) of line. In some locations, notably Myrtle Beach, SC, FAA regulations limit flying height. In the case of Myrtle Beach the max height off the water is 300-500 feet. Daytona Beach, Fl, on the other hand has flights as high as 2,000 feet (610 m).
The largest current parasail operator is Caribbean Watersports in the US Virgin Islands.
The tow line in normally made up of Kevlar(tm). This synthetic fiber of high tensile strength is better than any type of steel. Metal used in water sports has the potential to rust and weaken over time. Additionally, in the rare event where a line would break, kevlar would remain limp, whereas steel could whip back towards the towing vessel causing more havoc on the boat than to the parasail passangers in the air.
[edit] See also
References
